


The Snow Storm Variations

by Glinda



Category: Leverage
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Eve, Found Family, Multi, Snow, Snowed In, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 06:43:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17095775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glinda/pseuds/Glinda
Summary: Five Times Team Leverage Got Snowed in Together by Accident (And Once When it was Entirely On Purpose)





	The Snow Storm Variations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Roshwen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roshwen/gifts).



_1 – November 2008, Duluth Airport, Minnesota_

Snow in Minnesota is hardly a surprise, but Alec had been keeping an eye on the weather patterns and they should have been winging their separate ways across the skies well ahead of this storm. But no, having narrowly rescued victory from the jaws of defeat on this job, they had to reschedule to later flights, and here they are, stuck in this tiny airport, along with the best part of a thousand other people all waiting for the storm to clear. He blames Nate, mostly because Sophie had called dibs on flying out via Minneapolis rather than Chicago – she really hates O’Hare - so the two of them had ended up on the last flight to actually take off ahead of the storm. 

When they’d originally discussed their ex-fill plans, Alec had seen no reason to dispute Sophie’s suggestion. He never truly objects to getting to actually stay in his own apartment – not that it’s the only apartment he owns, just that it was his first and therefore his favourite – and whenever he flies somewhere via Chicago with Parker and Eliot, they all end up hanging out there. Maybe it’s just nostalgia, because his Chicago apartment is where they first started to learn how to be a team, but things are always easier between the three of them there. He likes having them both in his space and they seem to like being there too. He hadn’t quite allowed himself to think that they were looking forward to that post-job downtime together as much as he was, but he was almost there. 

So here they are, the three of them, playing cards and killing time in an airport departure lounge, but mostly trying to figure out what they are to each other when they aren’t working. Alec can’t quite work out just what he feels for Parker – much less what she might feel about him – and he swings back and forth almost by the hour on whether Eliot might be in contention to be one his favourite people on the planet, or if he even remotely likes the guy. The only thing he’s certain about is that he could no more forget either of their names than he could his own. 

_2 – Christmas Eve 2009, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts_

It wasn’t as though Nate had never visited a museum when it was closed. Between his old job as an insurance investigator and the various cons they’d run over the last couple of years, he’d seen his fair share of them. Yet, there was something special about being in the MFA at night. Perhaps it simply fulfilled some secret childhood longing he’d forgotten. Whatever the reason, walking the vaunted halls and galleries so late on Christmas Eve that it was practically Christmas itself, had an almost magical quality. 

The snow falling softly outside the windows definitely helped. 

As did the company. Parker was certainly a unique tour guide. Here, in her element, her unique perspective really came into it’s own. As much as her priorities involved the security systems and challenges of robbing the place much more than the actual art, she had a truly practical appreciation of the architecture that he could empathise with. As a small boy he’d often looked up at the balconies, crenulations and crevices of the architecture and fantasised about climbing amongst it. Didn’t every kid dream of balancing along the balustrades with the grace and ease that Parker managed? So instead of trying to figure out why she really needed him there, he allowed himself to be immersed in the way she saw the museum. Different, but similar enough, to the way he himself had seen the place as a child. This was where he’d learned to love art for it’s own sake.

Sophie had been talking about her Christmas plans for weeks and sailed out the door of their bar as soon as their last pre-Christmas job had been finished. He’d noticed the other three sharing significant looks occasionally but he’d utterly ignored them, in lieu of wrestling with the continuing issue of figuring out just what was going on between him and Sophie. He’d been sure that they’d all left for their own mysterious seasonal plans until a couple of hours before, when Parker had appeared with a wide-eyed appeal for help with a plan of her own. It wasn’t until he was walking up the main staircase of the museum that he realised that he’d been conned in turn. 

It wasn’t until he spotted a security guard patrolling, seemingly oblivious to their presence that he was certain - long practice allowing Nate to identify Eliot’s silhouette even at a distance. Nonetheless, he held his peace until the two of them were ensconced in a quiet nook with travel mugs of mulled wine that Parker had produced seemingly from nowhere. 

“I knew the south-bounded flights were grounded with the weather, but I thought the Chicago flights were still running fine?” He asked. 

“Last I heard, they were still running,” Parker tells him, “but the delays were huge so when Alec realised Eliot’s flight was cancelled too they decided to just stick around and help me out with your Christmas present.”

Nate quietly doubts that either of them made it through security before deciding to come back and help Parker. The storm was just an excuse to themselves, not that he’ll ever call either of them on it. After the year they’ve had, he’s sure this is a Christmas present as much for Parker as it is for him, but that doesn’t mean he appreciates it any less for that. Instead, safe in the knowledge that Eliot is patrolling and Hardison is watching over them from a security centre somewhere close-by he allows himself to relax. He’s collected his own assortment of secrets about this place over the years, he can afford to share them with an audience that will really appreciate them. 

_3 - February 2010, Whistler, British Columbia_

If Sophie had given much thought to getting snowed-in, in a ski lodge after a job, it was only as a vague fantasy involving a great deal of subtle manipulation by herself, a romantic roaring fire and a certain someone happily high on the success of a job pulled-off perfectly. It would not have involved, nearly getting caught in a white-out and loosing their mark, narrowly avoiding an old enemy of Eliot’s and having to take refuge in an abandoned ski lodge where the heat wasn’t working and the whole team having to sleep in every item of clothing them owned. Last night had been marked by stony silences and short accusatory exchanges every bit as chilly as the temperature. 

This morning though, the world was transformed in more ways than one. The storm had dumped nearly three feet of snow on the ground, but the sky was that crisp mountain blue and everything sparkled in the winter sunshine. 

Sophie followed the sounds of shouts and laughter out of the lodge, and lingered in the doorway to watch the scene in front of her unfold. Parker, Hardison and Eliot were engaged in a something between a snowball fight, competitive snow angel making and a wrestling match. Gone was the sullen, worried trio of the night before, transformed by the snow into something altogether happier. Even Eliot looked considerably less twitchy and watchful. Quietly, she pulled out her phone and snapped a photo for Nate, revelling in the warm glow that had snuck up on her, and forgetting for a moment how long it might be before she could show him the picture. 

It was, Sophie realised, slightly warmer outside than it was inside. With the sun lighting up the lodge, she felt much more confident about exploring what else it might have to offer, so she left the others to their shenanigans and began her own brand of investigation. 

The switchbox she found in the cupboard below the stairs, was both ancient and utterly dead, but the kitchen revealed an equally elderly gas stove that was thankfully still connected. Eliot had unearthed a storm lantern that had kept them going in extremis the night before, but the sunshine now revealed that one of the kitchen drawers contained a box of candles – four of them, she noted, with a wry smile – a box of matches, and a rather more prosaic lighter. Sophie sighed a little over the – currently useless – electric kettle she found in another cupboard along with a forgotten jar of drinking chocolate and set the – rather more useful in the circumstances - stove-top kettle on to boil. 

By the time the other three came clattering in from the snow, Sophie had both a plan and several mugs full of hot chocolate waiting for them. Everything might not be fixed quite yet but it was a good start. 

_4 – March 2011, Mount Kibari, Alaska_

They shouldn’t be here. 

For a start they were supposed to be split up for a good long time, to make sure they’ve truly got away with their most dangerous con to date. More immediately, they should have got off this mountain and as far away from the very different dangers posed by Drexel and the Rangers, as soon as physically possible. But as Eliot told Nate earlier, you can’t con a mountain, and mountain weather is unpredictable and dangerous at the best of times. This is far from the best of times, so they are naturally snowed-in up here. 

Two weeks is barely long enough to miss the rest of the team, yet somehow he has missed them. He knows, logically, that he should be angry, that he should insist they return to the original plan, but he’s too glad to have them where he can see them, where he can keep them safe. 

Eliot returns from patrol – or as near as he can manage in the circumstances – to find that everyone else has gone to sleep. When he’d left Parker and Hardison had been talking quietly but intensely, while Sophie and Nate had been not speaking in deafening silence while pretending not to be. Eliot can hear Nate snoring quietly somewhere close-by but all his attention is drawn to Parker and Hardison. They’re almost exactly where he left them, sitting together on the sofa, curled into themselves, but leaning into each other. Now though, Parker’s head is resting on Hardison’s shoulder and his in turn is resting on top of hers. Eliot feels the warmth rise up inside him, and he tells himself that it’s pride in how far she’s come that he feels. That despite all the apparent unlikeliness, the two of them are ever so slowly working out how to love each other.

He tucks a blanket round them both and retreats to where he can keep watch over them. In the deep quiet peculiar to snow, he also tucks away the memories of the secrets he now keeps for Parker, and, just as precious, Hardison’s choked declaration over the radio. Something to keep him warm, on nights far colder and darker than this one.

_5 – Christmas 2011, Chicago, Illinois_

It’s always weird being apart from the team for any notable length of time, but this time it’s weirder than normal for Parker because she’s sort of away from the team and sort of not away from them. When they’d scattered this time, she and Alec had decided to stick together, to take this time away from the team to figure out what it means to be a them, a unit of two within the team. 

It’s also strange in another way, because for the first time she gets to see just how important the wider team is to Alec. The way he keeps tabs on everyone even when they’re officially scattered. It’s fun watching the little dots puttering about the globe on his map. Weirdly reassuring knowing that whenever she misses the others, Hardison can pull up his little maps and show her roughly where they are at that moment. Mostly. Eliot’s good at hiding – almost as good as her – so sometimes he disappears entirely but he always reappears again. 

Which is what makes it funnier when he appears in person completely by accident, passing through Chicago at the same time that they are. Another airport, another snowstorm, it’s almost a tradition now. Eliot doesn’t look best pleased to see them, but Parker can tell it’s a front – in the way that he hugs them both a little too tight, and let’s them cling back to him a little too hard. He’s probably right that they should split up immediately but it’s snowing, and Hardison still has his apartment in Chicago and most of all it’s Christmas. 

(As much as they suspect that Eliot was passing through on the off-chance that he’d run into them, he’ll never admit that, and they’ll never ask. Won’t risk spooking him.)

The apartment is cold with disuse and takes a while to warm up, but they have supplies and blankets and – of vital importance to Parker – some classic Christmas movies. So they set themselves up on the sofa, burrowing under the blankets together to warm up and let the movies waft over them. It’s weird being back here after so long – after so much has happened, they aren’t the same people they were back then – but it’s a good weird, comforting. 

They don’t intend to sleep there, but they do in the end, Parker’s knees tucked carefully over Eliot’s legs, not enough to actually trap him, just enough to give him an excuse to stay put. He stays put until at least 6am Parker reckons, but she’s up not long after that too, unable to keep still for excitement about her favourite holiday. By that time Eliot is in the kitchen meticulously planning the perfect dinner for them – at least as close to perfect as he can manage given their supplies and accommodating for their respective tastes – that he tells her will have to be their Christmas present from him. As though there isn’t already a present under their makeshift tree with his name on it, as though they hadn’t bought it ages before without any real hope of seeing him at the appropriate time. (Well, procured really, a ‘stole this and thought of you’ moment.) Parker shares an understanding look with a still sleepy Alec, next year they’ll need to raise the game on the present game, find something that shows Eliot all the things they cannot tell him in words. 

Tomorrow they’ll have to scatter again, but for now, they’re together again. They have food and each other, and nowhere else to be. No better present than any they could have thought to ask for. 

_\+ 1 - Christmas 2017, Portland, Oregon_

“How is a city this far north, this bad at dealing with snow,” Eliot grumbled as he cleared the pavement in front of the brewpub of its light coating of snow. 

Alec, who grew up in Chicago and had pretty much never been properly cold since moving to Portland, rolled his eyes at Eliot. “How long have we lived in this city, that you’re still surprised by the non-existence of infrastructure for dealing with weather we rarely get?”

“I’m just saying, it’s just irresponsible to be this unprepared as a city. For that matter, why aren’t we better prepared than this?” Eliot demanded to know. 

Alec debated pointing out that they had sufficient supplies to keep the brew pub open for several days even if they were opening to the public, which they weren’t. They weren’t prepared for a Illinois snowstorm but they were ready for an Oregon one. Instead he decided to distract Eliot from the rant that was clearly building by tossing him the salt. 

“Is this kitchen salt?” he exclaimed, in outraged tones. 

“Technically, I think these days it’s actually the garden salt,” Alec mused, “it’s the iodised salt, that you refuse to cook with, might as well put it to good use. Not like there’s any slugs about at this time of year.” 

Alec preferred not to think about slugs in general, nor about the gleeful look that Parker got whenever she went out slug hunting in Eliot’s roof-top garden. 

Instead he focused on the rather more pleasant memory of Parker’s sheer joy in the face of Portland having for once provided her with a proper White Christmas. 

However much Eliot pretends to be a Grinch about the season, Alec knows that he’s not immune to Parker’s infectious glee about this time of year. They’ve all of them plenty of memories of horrible holiday seasons past, but Alec has come to be completely on board with Parker’s determination to reclaim it as a time of utter joy. Besides, if Eliot thinks they don’t know he’s been planning and experimenting in the kitchen for weeks for today, then he’s not nearly as smart as they know him to be. 

It’s just a small gathering this year, they’ll video-conference with Sophie and Nate later, but it’ll just be the three of them for dinner this year. Alec suspects they’re all secretly looking forward to that, to using the snow as an excuse to shut the doors, dim the lights and let the rest of the world – and the rest of their work – look after itself for the day.

(“Will you be home for Christmas this year?” Parker had asked Sophie last time they spoke. 

“Portland is officially home now, is it?” Sophie had deflected. 

“We’re still here,” she’d assured Sophie seriously, “we understand you’ve got your own things going on, but we’d love to see you in person if you can make it.”

“Next year,” Sophie promises, “things to sort out at this end first.” 

Parker doesn’t push her, Sophie needs her secrets, she’ll share them when she’s ready.)

They don’t need the excuse of a snowstorm to spend the holidays together anymore, and the heating in the brewpub works just fine. Yet, still they bundle up together on the couch with all their blankets, to watch old movies and steal leftovers from each other’s plates. These days they don’t even need to pretend that falling asleep together there is an accident of too much food and wine, or too many hours on the road. Still, there’s a little bit of magic to waking up in the early hours, to seeing each other rumpled and half-asleep lit only by fairy lights, as Eliot herds the other two off to bed and doesn’t attempt to resist when they pull him in along with them.


End file.
